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Riders Amaze, Pittsburgh Astonishes, Omaha & Columbus Next
Only 24 more days till the 2004 Mayors' Ride end in Chicago!!
We finally hit good weather on a Pittsburgh NBG Day (last Friday July 9) and that resulted in one of the best Mayors' Ride receptions to date. To help you understand what I mean, when I talked with Ro Fischer, Mayor Tom Murphy's Sr. Aide, not only did her boss celebrate with our riders, but she told me everywhere she looked there were bikes and cameras and smiling faces. Added kudos to Michael Sobkoviak of Venture Outdoors for making sure the media and the local bike clubs, both of which came out in numbers, had been fully advised. Nick and Troy, as U saw in here last week, also made sure Michael's time was not wasted as they had gone in to town the night before and participated in an indoor bike race on our behalf . So before I share the latest on Don Loomis, Unicyclist, Patrick Thomas, and our Columbus to Indy Rowbikers, here is what they are saying in Pittsburgh: ======================================== Friday July 9, 2004 was a lovely day to be outdoors in Pittsburgh, PA. As luck would have it, on this specific day riders from the Mayorıs Ride were arriving from Washington, DC. After riding for 1 week, covering about 325 miles, Pittsburgh was looking better and better. The riders, Troy and Nick were greeted by 25 fellow supporters at the Eliza Furnace Trailhead. The riders were escorted by the city police and the 25 supporters for 3 miles to Market Square where the Mayorıs Office and Venture Outdoors, an organization with the mission to get people outdoors, had set up a welcoming ceremony. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom Murphy was present at the event to honor the riders on their completion of the trip from D.C. Mayor Murphy discussed his familiarity with the trail, having been on it a month before. Throughout his tenure of being mayor he has fought continuously for the development and maintenance of trails in the Pittsburgh area and surrounding regions. After the ceremony, the 25 supporters of the ride were escorted back to the trail by Maggie Feinstein, Program Coordinator at Venture Outdoors. The riders and staff of Venture Outdoors were treated to lunch by the mayorıs office, at Primanti Brothers after the event concluded to reward their hard work and dedication to the Mayorıs Ride. Audrey Swartz Program Leader Intern Venture Outdoors Also: What Audrey didnıt mention was that, although 25 bikes and two of Pittsburghıs bike police led the way through the city streets at 12:30, there were bike clubs who went straight to the staging area to greet the riders. At one point there were easily 60 bikes in Market Square, when I stopped counting, plus the normal lunchtime crowd. The weather was glorious and the crowd very appreciative of the work Mayor Murphy has done with our trail system. We also had several TV stations there as well as radio coverage. Rosemary Fischer Office of the Mayor Sr. Executive Assistant* Note from NBG: As soon as Troy gets the CD to us, we will turn the awesome pictures he took of the C&O Canal Path into a slide show that will help others see how absolutely stunning this bike run truly is!! And why Troy says he wants to do it year in year out for the NBG!! ======================================== As our ride from the East Coast heads next for Columbus, not only is veteran NBG rider, David Huggins Daines, going to ride an all nighter to get there, but it looks like Race Across America star, Jeff Stephens is going to go out in the dark to find him so he can usher David to the Columbus city limits. There the both of them will meet even more riders for their run to City Hall At City Hall, they will meet Rowbike riders Marshall Lafferty and Victor Grinshtein as well as former Mayor Steve Shaw who will be on a road bike. The three of them will be riding first from Columbus to Cincinnati, a new NBG Day (July 19) city this year, and then to Indianapolis NBG Day on July 23. More on their well researched ride and the amazing Rowbikes themselves as their rides evolve!! ======================================== Max Chen offers this excellent report about our amazing unicyclist who is holed up in the Vernal, UT furnace as you will see: July 9th update for Patrick.* He was on his way from Kamas to Duchesne in Utah Friday morning (near Park City if that helps). He was hoping to visit his uncle in Denver, CO by the weekend. After three days in Salt Lake City, sending out press releases, being on TV, and running errands, he was back to the incredible pace of 6-7 mph. His morale sounded much higher, partly because of the dramatic scenery of snow capped mountains and forests. Or as Patrick said, "The view does the pedaling for you". The limiting factor for the ride will either be the distance, the weather, or the seat. Up until now, he's been using a t-shirt for an extra cushion, but will hopefully be getting an air filled seat in Colorado. People have been kind to him, probably a lot to do with the unicycle. How can you not trust a man on a unicycle? A motorcyclist who passed him on Highway 50 ended up being a motel owner down the road. She saw him and then later gave him free room and board. Patrick said it was very generous but he was so tired that night, he ended up sleeping on the covers and in the morning it looked like the room had not been occupied at all. A few people have also offered him money. Five dollars here, ten there, but he has declined, telling them to donate through the website or give a little to their local cause. His web: http://www.pedalthewaves.org He faxed a number of pages last week, but I'm still in the middle of typing them up. They cover up to Day 6 near Placerville. Ancient history by now, but I'll get them out maybe tomorrow. The words above were followed by this note from Patrick yesterday afternoon: At 7:20 PM +0000 7/12/04, Patrick Thomas wrote: Hey Max and martin Just a quick word from the town of Vernal, Utah, 30 miles from the border with Colorado. My pedal started falling off in the town of Roosevelt (28 miles back) and, even though I would screw it back in tightly, it would already be falling back off within the mile. I was fortuntate to hitch a ride for the last 22 miles here to Vernal but, unfortunatey, it was Sunday morning, 7/11, and the bike shops were both closed. Apparently, alot of places are closed here on Sunday, greatly due to the Mormon Church influence.*Even though the problem is with my right, crank arm , which is stripped ( after logging over 1,000 miles)*I am trying to get two new pedal cranks and two new pedal, shipped overnight from Unicycle.com in Georgia (figure, i might as well do both pedals and cranck arms while I'm at it and not wait for the other pedal to start falling apart. I suppose with all the training and trip miles I have logged on these pedals, especially with the climbs, they have endured a great deal of stress). If I can get that done, I will probably leave here for Colorado on Wednesday, 7/14. Tryin' to keep cool in the 90 degree daily weather. ======================================== Don Loomis is powering away as he surges toward Omaha on his way to Chicago, the end point for this year's Mayors' Ride. Faye Saunders connected with Don, who is now in Nebraska, and she filed this great report: From Ogallala, Nebraska I received an interesting geography lesson from Don this weekend as he called me from the Ogallala Aquifer. The Aquifer is a huge underground reservoir covering a total of 800 miles north to south and 400 miles east to west. It includes the states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. There is grave concern about the water level of the Aquifer since "it has been cut off from almost all of its natural recharging sources". See http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/gw/Ogallala_1.cfm for more information about this incredible natural resource that is being rapidly depleted. After leaving Galeton, Colorado, Don took Hwy 14, which is the same route he was on when he crossed Cameron Pass back in the Rockies. He was a celebrity at the restaurant in New Raymer where he stopped to grab lunch. Everyone in the restaurant came out to see his bike, and those who had cameras with them, took lots of pictures. Must have been a hearty lunch, because when Don saw some nice grass along the side of the road, he decided to take a nap. There have been many wide load trucks passing him lately carrying all sorts of large items; manufactured homes, lumber, etc. At the Walmart in Sterling, he picked up some batteries, bananas, oranges, Oreo cookies -- much needed supplies for the road. A guy there was a recumbent rider and knew the former mayor of Iliff. Once in Iliff, the former mayor gave Don directions to a park where he could camp for the night. At another park in the middle of town there was a band playing Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Good. And it did sound good, however, seeing some storm clouds in the distance, he opted for dinner and beer in a local tavern instead. There he met a fellow named Zack who was there with his mother and sister, and his stepdad, who was the bartender. They warned Don about a rabid skunk who was known to be prowling the area. When Don arrived back at his tent, he found it unzipped. After looking inside very carefully and finding no skunks, he climbed inside, zipped the tent up tightly, and fell fast asleep. For breakfast, Don had yogurt with some raw oatmeal and water mixed in with it. After hitting the road again, he experienced flat tire #6, this one on the BOB trailer again. For lunch he stopped in Ovid, Colorado, which had received 4" of rain the night before! Don was glad he missed that. He then had an interesting cow experience. A (gang/group/bunch/herd?) of about 100 cows all began walking toward him, ran away, and then cautiously came back again. I'm sure they had never seen the likes of Don before with his fully loaded recumbent bicycle dressed from head to toe in his white 30 SPF outfit! He spent about 20 minutes with the cows, capturing them on his camcorder and even managed some form of communication with them -- when he mooed, one of the cows returned the sentiment. A little further along, he was greeted by a couple of dogs, one of whom gave him a big hug. He then came across an interesting looking but no longer active grain elevator. It reminded him of the large redwood trees that you can drive a car through out there on the West Coast. He parked his bike inside and took a picture and thought what a great campsite that would have made had it been later in the day. Later, as he was riding along, he came upon a bearded man walking along the highway with his pack and guitar. He was hiking his way from California back to New York where he came from after having run out of money on the west coast. Several police cars had stopped and given him rides along the way and Don gave the man some of his water. Once in Ogalalla, Don found a campground with shower facilities. It had been three days since his last shower and his clothing was beginning to stick to his skin. There is a couple camping next to him named Marty and Jean who travel the country singing in churches. Many thunderstorms and tornados begin in this area because of the winds coming down from the Rocky Mountains combining with the humid winds from the Gulf of Mexico creating turbulence. There are currently flood warnings east of Ogalalla, but Don didnt' seem too worried about that -- he's got electricity at his campsite, he'll be taking a shower soon, and will then go swimming in the campground pool. While we were on the phone, Don was looking at the sunset to the west, thunderstorms to the south, the interstate highway to the east, and Marty and Jean singing to the north. Marty and Jean recommended a beautiful route for Don to take on his way from Chicago to DC along Hwy 30 east of Pittsburgh. The wind is out of the west right now and Don is hoping that continues into tomorrow. ======================================== btw: You can learn about all of our riders at: http://www.nationalbicyclegreenway.c...yors_Ride/bios Our dynamic schedule with links to reports and pictures and proclamations can be found at: http://www.BikeRoute.com/NationalMayorsRide2004 |
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Riders Amaze, Pittsburgh Astonishes, Omaha & Columbus Next
Cycle America wrote:
As our ride from the East Coast heads next for Columbus, not only is veteran NBG rider, David Huggins Daines, going to ride an all nighter to get there, but it looks like Race Across America star, Jeff Stephens is going to go out in the dark to find him so he can usher David to the Columbus city limits. There the both of them will meet even more riders for their run to City Hall I'm trying to remember who wrote about the alumni representative problem, where somebody thinks you want to know everything that pops into their head. It comes up all over. Then there's an ugly combination with delusions of grandeur, and you get press releases designed to prove that bike riders are empty-headed loons. Call it misguided activism across America or something; leave bike riders out of it. -- Ron Hardin On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk. |
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